A debut album is perhaps an opportunity to demonstrate what you are doing rather than what you could do and, with his album “Buin,” Pàdruig Morrison duly keeps his aspirations in line with the expectations of the Scottish traditional music genre.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, and he proves himself to be an accomplished accordionist over these eleven songs, both traditional and original, and those whose ears are attuned to the music of this particular genre will find much that is familiar and respectfully performed. Gaelic is, as anyone with ears can attest, is a language for singing and those songs where words are given their freedom to endear prove to be the most rewarding with, in particular, Mischa MacPherson’s clear and pure voice never being less than enchanting.
“Buin” is an album that clearly reveres the traditional elements of Scottish music and Pàdruig Morrison has little trouble in making that particular musical playbook his own.